Shaozong was about to enter the great northwest to launch a campaign of the Western Expedition, but the necessary preparations for the Western Expedition were not completely completed. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

The Gobi and desert in the northwest are very conducive to the Ma family army with a large number of cavalry to fight, and if Shaozong wants to deal with the Ma family army with strong mobility in the vast desert, it is essential to have a strong cavalry team.

After the approval of the Military Commission, Zhang Cheng quickly formed a cavalry division using the war horses captured in the Battle of Qingyang, and Wang Hu temporarily served as the commander of the cavalry division.

Due to the shortage of cavalry, the political commissar carried out a wide range of heart-to-heart talks and grievances among the captured cavalry of the Ma Jiajun, but the Ma Jiajun was basically an army composed of blood relatives, and the Red Army eliminated a large number of Ma family officers and soldiers, and their hatred for the Red Army was not relieved, and finally the political commissar only mobilized less than 2,000 cavalry to join the Red Army.

Fortunately, Zhang Cheng had a certain understanding of Lu Zhongliang, the commander of the 7th Division of the Ningma New Division, and knew that this person was a rare general with a clear conscience among the officers of the Ma Jiajun who had a bad record, and he could understand the overall situation and recognize the situation clearly (in history, Lu Zhongliang saw that the giant ship of the Kuomintang was about to sink, and decisively led his troops to revolt in September 49 and joined the People's Liberation Army).

Because Lu Zhongliang is a Han Chinese, he seems out of place among the generals of the Ma family, but Lu Zhongliang is very able to endure hardships, and he works hard, and Ma Hongkui took Lu Zhongliang as an example in order to put an end to others saying that he only promoted the Ma family, and promoted him repeatedly, and finally made Lu Zhongliang a senior commander in the Ningma group.

Zhang Cheng personally talked with Lu Zhongliang and gave him a detailed introduction to the policies and propositions of the Red Army. Through exchanges, Lu Zhongliang was very appreciative of the Red Army's idea of stopping the civil war and unanimously resisting Japan, and he did not reject joining the Red Army, but Lu Zhongliang still had certain concerns about asking him to join the Red Army and then attack Ma Hongkui again.

The Ningma cavalry had been seriously injured in Qingyang, and the rest were not worried, so Zhang Cheng assured Lu Zhongliang that he would not have to participate in our army's battle against Ningma after joining the Red Army. Zhang Cheng's sincerity finally dispelled Lu Zhongliang's concerns, and he expressed his willingness to lead his subordinates to surrender to our army and join the Red Army.

Under Lu Zhongliang's words and deeds, another 2,000 Han cavalry who were depressed in the Ma family army joined the Red Army, so that the 4,000 cavalry prisoners of the Ma family army plus the original more than 2,000 people of the cavalry regiment, the cavalry division finally made up enough 6,000 numbers, and the cavalry unit that Zhang Cheng had high hopes for was finally established.

After the men and horses gathered, Zhang Cheng quickly announced orders to the Young Cavalry Division: Wang Hu, commander of the cavalry division, Xiao Sheng, political commissar, and Lu Zhongliang, deputy division commander; The cavalry division has jurisdiction over two cavalry brigades, Wang Hu concurrently serves as the commander of the First Cavalry Brigade, and Lu Zhongliang concurrently serves as the commander of the Second Cavalry Brigade. The cavalry division was formed, and the biggest shortcoming of the Shaozong Westward Expedition was filled.

On April 4th, the Shaozong took the cavalry division as the pioneer and marched to Tianshui in the southwest direction, and arrived at Zhenyuan County in only three hours, Zhenyuan was located in the southwest of Qingyang, because the Shaozong annihilated the main force of the Ma Jiajun under the city of Qingyang, the Zhenyuan puppet county government that had just been established for a short time immediately fled with money after hearing the news, and our soldiers took Zhenyuan County without blood.

That night, after all the main forces of the young column arrived in Zhenyuan, Zhang Cheng summoned cadres at and above the group level to hold a briefing on the situation before entering the northwest.

Zhang Cheng got straight to the point and said: "This time, I called you here to introduce you to how the troops fought against the cavalry of the Ma Jiajun in the vast desert wasteland. Next, I will seize the time to give you a detailed explanation by Lu Zhongliang, deputy commander of the cavalry division of our army, and I would like to invite Deputy Division Commander Lu. ”

When it comes to fighting in the wilderness of the great northwest, no one has more say than Lu Zhongliang, who is a general who came out of the Ma family army and has extremely rich experience in cavalry combat.

"Thank you Commander Zhang for your trust, and I will tell you about some of the situation in the Great Northwest and Ma Jiajun. First of all, I have heard that most of the comrades are from the south, so these comrades should be more careful after entering the great northwest, which is mostly deserts, Gobi, and grasslands, where the climate is dry, water is scarce, and the temperature difference between day and night is very large.

In addition, the great northwest is mainly composed of three provinces of Gansu, Qingdao and Ning, and the enemy is also dominated by three horses, namely Ma Hongbin of Gan Province, Ma Bufang and Ma Buqing of Qing Province, Ma Hongkui of Ning Province, Ma Bufang and Ma Hongkui Most of the main forces were annihilated by our army under Qingyang City, and now most of their remaining forces are local security regiments.

As for Ma Hongbin of Gan Province, he had about 12,000 troops under his command, and most of his troops were separated from Ningma, and he was the weakest among the three horses.

I remember that they had a brief confrontation with the 25th Army last year, and they were severely repaired by the 25th Army, so he was more afraid of the Red Army, which was the biggest reason why he did not respond to Chang Kaishen's call to attack the Soviet base area this time.

Ma Jiajun was originally the strongest Ma Bufang, but after most of his main force was wiped out by our army, Qingma, who has always been a hero based on strength, should be respected by Ma Buqing, Ma Buqing is Ma Bufang's own brother, but the two are not close to each other in order to compete for the boss of Qingma, this is where we can use it to fight with Qingma in the future, Ma Buqing has a fifth cavalry division under him, which is his biggest capital based on Ma Jiajun, and his combat effectiveness is relatively strong.

Although there are a large number of infantry under the command of the three horses, their infantry are all scumbags and are extremely poorly equipped, and with a small amount of firepower, a regiment can probably defeat a division of them, we can ignore it. The only thing that needs to be paid attention to them is the cavalry, which is also the foundation of the Ma family's army, but the battle of Qingyang proved that it is also a tragedy for cavalry to encounter heavy machine guns.

However, with the lessons of the Battle of Qingyang, I don't think they will let the cavalry attack our blocking positions anymore, the key to the victory or defeat of this western expedition is likely to be determined by the cavalry duel between the two sides, we need to pay attention to the fact that there are at least 5,000 cavalry under the command of the three horses, they are all standard northwest war horses, fast, strong impact, and endurance is also very good.

Therefore, once our infantry encounters the cavalry of the Ma family army in the wilderness, remember not to retreat, because there is no way to escape. I think everyone should learn more from Commander Zhang Cheng, and once they encounter cavalry, they should immediately set up a machine-gun position, and then stick to it and wait for reinforcements. ”

Lu Zhongliang is worthy of being a veteran of the battlefield who has been in the Ma Jiajun for many years, and he told the bottom of the military secrets of the Ma Jiajun and explained in detail all the matters that need to be paid attention to in the northwest operation, thus laying a very good foundation for the young commander's westward expedition.

After Lu Zhongliang finished explaining, Zhang Cheng stood up and said: "Knowing oneself and knowing the other is the first priority of the two armies, the precautions mentioned by Deputy Division Commander Lu Zhongliang are all empirical and very important to our army's westward expedition, I hope that you will keep in mind what Deputy Division Commander Lu said when you fight with Ma Jiajun in the future, if you still make a mistake of principle under the reminder of Deputy Division Commander Lu, causing large-scale losses to our army, you will be severely punished, do you remember clearly?" ”

"Clear!"

Zhang Cheng nodded when he heard this, and he didn't say anything, and immediately shouted: "Dismiss!" ”